Harry Reveals Royals Are ‘Obsessed’ With a ‘Sinister’ Thing — and It Turned Them Against Each Other
Harry's 'Spare' reveals how yearly engagement totals became an unspoken pressure inside the royal family.
Prince Harry has never been shy about his distaste for the less visible side of royal politics; the systems that operate behind the scenes to influence behavior in a manner that is never actually voiced. In Spare, he detailed the dry bureaucratic ledger system, one that he believes hardened rivalries within the House of Windsor. On paper, it's strictly administrative.
The document is the Court Circular, the official daily record of royal engagements released by St James’s Palace. It lists where working royals have been and what duties they have carried out. At the end of each year, those entries are totalled and published in newspapers such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Scotsman. What appears to be a simple record, Harry argues, slowly turned into a way of judging who was pulling their weight. In his memoir, Harry says the annual totals encouraged comparisons, especially in the press. “At the end of the year, when all the numbers got tallied, comparisons would be made in the press. Ah, this one’s busier than that one. Ah, this one’s a lazy s---.”
He describes how the Court Circular began to feel less like a record and more like a source of pressure. “The Court Circular was an ancient document, but it had lately morphed into a circular firing squad,” he wrote, adding that it did not create competition within the family but “amplified them, weaponized them.”
His frustration is clearest when he describes what counted and what did not. “It was all self-reported, all subjective,” Harry wrote. “Nine private visits with veterans, helping with their mental health? Zero points. Flying via helicopter to cut a ribbon at a horse farm? Winner! Meaningful work done off-camera regularly dropped off the books, while fleeting and camera-friendly appearances were given too much importance.”
Yet this culture, which Harry describes, has not somehow evolved in a vacuum. The number of engagements attended is not only something that's reported in the press, but also by the Palace itself, as a measure of hard work. Princess Anne, who has long been known as the hardest-working member of the family, has topped the list every year, solidifying her position as a member of the monarchy who is absolutely dedicated. On this level, the Circular merely formalized a culture of competitiveness.
That pattern has continued into the present. In 2025, it was King Charles who emerged as the most 'hard-working' royal based on engagement numbers, overtaking his sister, despite undergoing cancer treatment. Meanwhile, Anne carried out 478 recorded engagements in 2025, despite being on duty across more days than her brother. The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, ranked third with 313 engagements, followed by his wife, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, who logged 235 duties. Queen Camilla placed fifth on the list, with 228 officially recorded engagements.
